Seized by violence

I join issues with the “churches” because the media (which is largely owned, home and abroad by Christians or those with affinity for Christianity, have succeeded in painting Islam as a religion of violence.  Muslims argue to the contrary – that Islam is a religion of peace – but have met with little success.  Here in Nigeria, our news media are still on a feeding frenzy – magnifying and promoting every violence – and of late, they have a bountiful harvest in the Boko Haram problem.   As I write, news media reports that Boko Haram engaged in a gunfight with soldiers and policemen in Okene, Kogi State, but my initial reaction is to believe that is another ruse.  Eight years ago, my driver’s head was almost blown off when we ran into a small tribal/political war in that same Okene, and there was no Boko Haram in Nigeria at that time.  Every single ‘knock-out’ that goes off in Nigeria today, has become the work of Boko Haram!  The media does much damage to Nigeria’s image today, but we all complain about the lack of foreign investors.  What goes around, comes around certainly.

I am trying to prove that though there are a small minority of Muslims who believe in Jihad and may want to forcefully convert people to their religion, though there are Muslims who believe that non-muslims are headed for perdition, it is also certain that the other religion (Christianity), needs to look at itself critically – especially in their rhetoric and use of words.  The whole of Nigeria has been seized by a rhetoric of violence, and we had better open our eyes and be wise, to see the damage we have done, and are doing, to ourselves.  We have deliberately mismanaged the fundamental and philosophical differences between Islam and Christianity in Nigeria.  These two religions are beautiful and peaceful in nature – at least as intended by their progenitors.    The current Boko Haram problem will push us to the brink, except we are extremely wise, patient and visionary.  Alas, all these attributes are missing even among our best thinkers.

Let us agree that there are Jihadists amongst Muslims who would love to blow themselves up for whatever reason.  But look at us Christians too.  A lady evangelist recently advertised her crusade in the newspapers, wherein she dressed up in army camouflage uniform and carried a Machine Gun.  The advert went “Women Warriors for Christ”.  Imagine that a benign Muslim organization did a similar advert just to announce its own “Asalatu”?  The world will go into an overdrive of condemnation and paranoia.  One of the very popular Christian Crusades of last year, was titled “Apostolic Invasion!”  Imagine Muslims advertising they intend to ‘invade’ a place, all of us will have panic attacks!  What is this with violent rhetoric among Nigerian Christians?  Why do people send scary texts every 1st of the month, hurling vituperations and deadly curses at imaginary ‘enemies’?  How can one possibly explain the arrogance, the wickedness, the selfishness often conveyed in those messages?  Would Jesus Christ be happy at what Nigerians have made of his religion?

Other interesting posters observed includes one saying they intend to “Take (it) by Force”, “Who did this to me?” “Let my enemies Fall down and die!”, “Lord, kill my enemies and give me their wealth!”,  “Who is behind this?”, “The Lord’s Battle Axe”, “Who ruined my destiny?”, “They shall not escape!”, “Operation Recover All” and of course the very partisan ones like “For Jonathan’s Sake!”, “The Throne is yours” (a Christian crusade with pictures of Messrs Jonathan and Sambo, which the government, if it was wise, should have cautioned against due to its polarizing influence and the way it cast Mr Jonathan as a sectional president with a religious agenda).

Before we start to think that the above rhetoric is mere talk, I will point out where the problem is.  Christians seem to have unwittingly farmed out the right to do violence to their government.  Irrespective of what the global press will want is to believe, the USA is by far the most violent country in the world today, and it is the most violent of civilizations since the history of mankind.  These assertions are not made lightly.  From the moment the Enola Gay dropped atomic bombs on Japan in 1944, killing hundreds of thousand of people in one fell swoop, the world has not been the same again.  The world, under the supervision and guidance of the USA, has gone on to develop the capability to destroy the Earth a hundred times over.  The USA killed over a million in Iraq recently.  It killed 3million in Vietnam in the 60s.  Over three hundred thousand people have been killed in Afghanistan, at least ten thousand were recently killed in Libya.  And by the time we look at proxy wars stoked around the world under the USA’s supervision and the number of lives lost in that process, it will be clear to all that those who pretend to be peaceful today are actually the most violent.

The problem is that the citizen of the world sit by while the powerful countries do violence in their name.  All the media has to do is rev up the hatred against some poor Muslim country and kaboom!  The bombs start to drop, and the Christians will actually start to feel that the USA and its ‘allies’, are doing them favours by bombing some country where the people are violent.  When considered in terms of casualty figures, the Christian-supported, media-controlling USA kills a whole lot more people than any Jihadist could dare.

Recently I drove past one of the large Christian camps on Abeokuta expressway, and I remembered the story about the camp, that members were given land to build, but were warned that if they left the church at any point in their lives, the house they built will no longer belong to them. Talk about intolerance! That means that I could have been right when I argued with someone, that with the level of open disdain and discrimination that reputedly ‘gentle’ Christians show to non-Christians, and even Christians who believe in different doctrines (like the things Pentecostals say to derogate Catholics), I could bet that if the world was populated by Christians alone, there will be unending wars (waged by their governments on behalf of acquiescing and conniving citizens, who have only succumbed to a well-orchestrated campaign of hate, driven and propagated by the powerful people who own the media).  I also placed a bet that with the strict prayer regimes of the Muslims (5 times a day), and the order that prevails, contrary to the expectations of many, a world full of Muslims only, may actually be quite peaceful.  But I may be wrong.  In all, I appeal to all readers to shun disdain and give peace a chance.